by Chris Billowsin Spirit0 commentstags: Human Condition, Political Opinion
In my previous post, I mentioned how I had given a presentation at City Hall concerning the protection of homeless people. After a client visit I was driving south on Main Street. I was driving towards the publicly controlled intersection where City Hall is when an obviously intoxicated man stumbled into traffic in an attempt to cross the street. We had the green light and he was obliviously jaywalking. His action forced everyone to slow down and stop. He could not move very fast as he lurched forward, not looking at the traffic he was blocking. I had slowed down and could see a car in the left lane coming up behind me. I honked three times to both alert the car and the intoxicated person crossing the street that this was not a good situation. Fortunately, nothing happened as he stumbled onto the median before the car could connect with him. Homelessness and intoxicated destitution is a world wide problem. The richest of cities have people who cannot make their ways in the world due to a range of social and mental health problems. What offends me and was the reason behind my botched presentation two days before […]

by Chris Billowsin Spirit0 comments
This morning I made a private presentation to the City of Winnipeg government committee concerning protection of homeless people. The problem was it was not very private and I was not prepared. 🙁 I was invited to the meeting by one of the Councilors but I did not actually expect to be called to speak. When my name was called, I don’t know what possessed me but I went up there half-expecting to do it and yet not really believing it was happening to me. I knew I was not prepared but went up there anyways with a reckless attitude of “let’s see how this goes”. A big part of what unnerved me was having three news cameras and the largest radio station place their microphone right next to me as I sat down to speak. I never dreamed there would be so many people present including the media. Life had slowed down to a complete crawl and I so wanted to not be there. I can only think that I did so poorly in communicating my ideas that the news did not bother to report on it thus saving me a more public embarrassment. After all, watching a person […]

by Chris Billowsin Think (Politics)0 commentstags: Change of Mind, Political Opinion
Establishing a system of governance that is perfect is impossible. Same thing with how we elect our leaders. There is no perfect system since somebody will always go home unhappy when it comes to elections. The question is what system creates the greatest good for the greatest number of people? In my previous articles on Proportional Representation, I argued that the STV (Single Transferable Vote) system is the best. Here are the benefits to STV: Voters have the ultimate choice who gets elected. The List-based Proportional Representation systems used in Europe and South America puts all of the control of who actually is elected into the party executive (who are elected only by their own members). As I stated before, leadership does not come from policy but by having the right kind of person. Let the voters decide who that person should be instead of a bunch of party policy wonks. Votes do not get wasted because voters get can have their ballot transfer over to help get somebody elected. Even if your favorite candidate gets eliminated, your next choices can still count. Reduce the influence of the political party. Politicians are reviled as a group, yet individually a politician’s […]

by Chris Billowsin Trade0 commentstags: Summarizing a Business Organization
Having formed my own corporation and also managed a number of non-profit corporations, I am struck by how a corporation is just like a any other organism. Thinking about this, I came up with the following system to help define what a corporation is and how it consists of three distinct systems that have biological counterparts: 1) Ego & Intelligence System: Operations is the consciousness and personality of the organization. It is the purpose behind the corporation’s existence. The buck stops here for anything that ultimately goes wrong. Operational and Executive Leadership is under the direction of the President (and Vice Presidents) and Chief Executive Officer (and Chief Operations Officers), and anyone else involved with managing the affairs of the corporation. 2) Nervous & Chemical System: Administration is the nerve-chemical communications system and is essential to keeping the various systems working together. Organizational Integrity is under the direction of the Secretary, Chief Administration Officer, Chief Technology Officer, and everyone else involved with administrating the business of the corporation. This would included everything from corporate By-Laws to computer systems. 3) Cardiovascular & Respiratory System: Money and Capital is the cardiovascular and respiratory system that is necessary for a corporation to live. […]

by Chris Billowsin Trade0 commentstags: Business Dilemma
I am struggling with whether I should focus on a single website and try to grow that or have multiple business sites going to take advantage of multiple streams of income. I found an interesting post from somebody else in my predicament. teromiettunen.com writes: Forget about having multiple streams of income and trying to hustle your way to success by spending little time here and there to make a little money. Your mind will feel a lot clearer and I and many others think that you?ll be much more successful if you only focus on building one big business. Of course you may want to first experiment what kind of business that is… Since 2003, I have been experimenting with the multiple streams method. I am inclined to agree with you in terms of the limited productivity problem. I have realized that it is very hard to get a website successfully launched and marketed all by myself. This combined with my social and occupational obligations, my effort is dispersed and results are hard to come by. Yet as it is wise to have multiple investments in one’s investment portfolio, I do think that having multiple streams is still a good […]

by Chris Billowsin Spirit0 commentstags: Meaning of Life
It is generally known that life is not fair. There is starvation in Africa and amazing wealth in California. Some people have blessings of a great jobs, health, and loving family, while there are others who are dumb, sick, and unattractive. If life was fair those who commit crimes against the innocent would always be punished. If life was fair businesses who pollute would pay for their crime. If life was fair we would never be governed by leaders who are oppressive or incompetent. But the problem is our attitude and expectations, not that life is unfair. We expect fairness from life and are disappointed, dejected, and depressed when we don’t get our way. We are deluded because we expect the impossible. This delusion, based on socialist and humanist notions that life must be fair for everyone, is the height of absurdity. Life is not fair and its time to get used to it. Life may not be fair, but it still has immense meaning. We need to understand that we are all interconnected to each other and the reason why some do may be poor is so that others can have more. People are poor in Africa because ecological […]

by Chris Billowsin Trade0 commentstags: Smart Money Management
In a previous post, I talked about how money can be used for consumption or creation. Generally, too much consumption will create financial insanity. The path to a sound financial future requires saving money by managing your cash flow. Cash flow is the most critical factor in achieving financial sanity. It is not about how much money you make but how much you keep. This means that saving money is the only way to achieve true wealth. Saving money requires diligence which is a combination of planning and effort and is the simplest way to create future happiness. The purpose of savings is for: Emergencies – Nothing creates more security knowing that if something in the house breaks down we have money set aside to pay for it. Expensive Treats – A vacation trip or wide screen TV is easier to enjoy knowing that it is paid for. Future Investment – When you need to contribute capital towards an investment or business, you need to have cash to invest. Borrowing – When you take out the money from the savings account plan to repay it back just like you would a loan from a lender. All of these are examples […]

by Chris Billowsin Think0 commentstags: New Types of Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Thank IQ written by Daniel Goleman helped save western psychology. It broke away from the myopic view that intelligence is information based and added a needed layer of understanding about what it means to be human. His concept of Emotional Intelligence helps define people in a new way and explains why some people are more successful than others. Daniel Goleman sets out to explain that we as humans are governed in large part by our emotional health. Because it is our brain that interprets our relationship with the physical and social environment, the state of our emotions are a big determinant in how well our brain does the interpreting. Goleman is not denying emotions or their usefulness, but does say that if emotions are allowed to run rampant, problems will follow. We all know that emotions can hi-jack one’s ability to think rationally. When one’s rationality is impacted upon, the ability to function optimally is compromised. Goleman explains that it is both possible and necessary to control these emotions through the practice of Emotional Intelligence. Not only is Goleman suggesting that both individuals and society would benefit to be Emotionally Intelligent but that […]